Products such as computer systems, electronics, software applications, mechanical systems, electromechanical systems and the like are all susceptible to various types of problems or defects sometimes known as “bugs”. Typically, defects or problems arise or occur within a product during the development of the product. As an example, during development of a complex software application, a software developer may develop software code, which appears to the developer to be correctly written, and which appears, when tested, to operate correctly during the runtime operation of the which appears, when tested, to operate correctly during the runtime operation of the software application. However, since a typical complex software application can be operated in many, and sometimes hundreds or thousands of different ways, it may be difficult for a developer to fully test or exercise all possible operations that the software application can perform. Accordingly, during development and test of a software product, the developer may be under the impression that the software application operates properly in all circumstances, when in reality, the software application contains problems, defects or bugs which do not become apparent during testing due to limitations of the testing process. When the testing process of a product is complete and the product is shipped to manufacturing for distribution to a commercial market, the product may include the problems or defects which were not discovered during testing.
Quite often, a company that produces products such as software or computer related systems provides support facilities to assist users (e.g., consumers) who have purchased products made by that company. The support facilities may be staffed with technical support personnel that can be contacted, for example by telephone or e-mail, to allow users to report problems or defects which they encounter during operation of a product which they have purchased. A user can communicate with the technical support personnel to indicate the nature of a problem they are experiencing within the particular product purchased from the company. The technical support personnel may be equipped with a computer system that operates a bug tracking software application which allows the technical support personnel to enter a bug report that conveys the nature of the suspected defect or problem concerning the product. The bug report is entered into a bug tracking database. Thereafter, the bug tracking software application can track the resolution of the suspected defect or problem with respect to the particular product for which the problem was reported using the bug report. If a similar bug or defect is reported in another product, such as a future release of the same product, the technical support personnel can enter another bug report that tracks the resolution of that defect in the other product.
In other situations, during development and testing of a product such as a software application, quality assurance personnel within a company that is producing the product can use a bug tracking software application during testing in order to track the resolution of problems encountered during product testing. As an example, if the quality assurance personnel are testing a new software application product and encounter a bug within the product, the quality assurance personnel can enter a bug report into the bug tracking software for that defect. The bug report identifies the particular problem associated with the particular product for which the bug was reported and may include a description of the specific bug. By using the bug tracking software, the quality assurance personnel can be sure that all bugs associated with the particular software product are resolved and fixed prior to shipment of the product.
After the product is shipped, development personnel within the company may begin work on another version of the software product such as a new release of the product containing additional features. During testing of the new release of the product, development and quality assurance personnel can use the bug tracking software to enter other bug reports for problems or defects discovered within the new release of the product.